LG Predicts OLED Panels Will Cost Less than LCD by 2016

During the FPD show in Japan, LG laid out its future plans for OLED displays with a roadmap that extends into 2016. And according to Wom Kim, LG's sales and marketing VP, that's the year OLED panels will cost less than LCD displays, providing it can leap over a handful of technological hurdles.

"We will be able to use a lwo-temperature polycrystal silicon with the sixth-generation size glass substrate," Kim said. "However, for 40-inch and larger panels, we have to use the eight-generation size glass substrate.Therefore, we have to develop equipment that can deal with an SPC process at a temperature of more than 700C."

Despite the challenges facing low-cost OLED displays, Kim believes his company will be able to transition from 50 percent higher material costs and 30 percent lower yields compared to LCDs in 2012, to a 20-30 percent lower material cost and equivalent yield in 2016.

Up until then, don't look for too many deals when it comes to OLED.

"Forty-inch and larger OLED panels will be fairly expensive in 2012, but they will be available in the market," Kim added.